


Used to Dream

by mydeira



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-14
Updated: 2012-01-14
Packaged: 2017-10-29 13:03:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/320188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydeira/pseuds/mydeira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria dreams of a different world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Used to Dream

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of a crack!bunny inspired by Doctor Who 3.13 "Last of the Time Lords".

Maria used to love to dream. Anything was possible. Then she met Sarah Jane Smith and learned that anything was possible outside of dreams as well. But she still loved to dream.

Until Harold Saxon and the Toclafane murdered the American president. The world watched in horror that day. But after the shock wore off, life continued like it always did. Maria still had homework to turn in and friends to look out for and aliens to encounter. Nothing changed, but nothing was the same. Especially her dreams.

Her dreams had become nightmares. Every night held new horrors. Harold Saxon—no, The Master, everyone was to call him Master now—kept issuing new rules and laws, enforced by the shiny Toclafane. He claimed it was for their safety. After all, the universe was a dangerous place.

Each night things grew worse, darker, more hopeless. But bad dreams were still only dreams, even if they didn’t feel much like it at the time.

She hated her dreams. But she could ignore them, almost forget them when she was awake. Even when people started dying in them.

One day, about two months after the dreams started, Maria asked Sarah Jane what she thought.

Sarah seemed to take greater interest in the teapot than Maria when she replied. “They’re just dreams, Maria. Don’t worry about it.”

It was the first time since they’d become friends that Sarah had outright lied to her. And Maria _did_ start to worry.

Luke didn’t dream, so he wasn’t any help. And Clyde refused to talk about his dreams at all.

“It’s all nonsense your brain cooks up, Maria. Nothing to get worked up over,” he dismissed.

Telling her mum was out of the question. As for her dad, well, he was, too. She couldn’t quite explain it, but she’d always felt the need to protect him if she could. He had enough troubles to sort on his own with out adding hers into the lot.

Dreams never hurt anyone, right? She decided she’d be fine. Eventually.

She should have known better.

***

They had been living in rubble and ruins for so long, Maria was beginning to think she had imagined that such things as cozy homes and soft beds even existed. She was almost certain there had been a time when her parents’ divorce and moving were the worst things that could ever happen to her. That was before Clyde and Luke were snatched out of school and her dad got torn to shreds by the Toclafane while she watched. Running for her life and mostly-starved was quickly becoming the only reality she had ever known. The fact that Sarah Jane wouldn’t give up was the reason Maria didn’t either.

Most days, Sarah Jane was upbeat with tales of her past adventures that almost never failed to distract Maria, even though she knew she should be beyond such things at this point. But when the world was going to hell, she’d learned that you clung to every shred of hope that came your way. Even when that hope came in the form of once-upon-a-times.

Today wasn’t one of those days. Sarah had been unusually quiet. But Maria understood. One year ago today they’d rescued Luke from the Bubble Shock factory. It was also why Maria had insisted on going off to look for food on her own.

She found three potatoes and a carrot in a debris cluttered garden. Practically a feast.

On her way back, Maria passed a huddle trio.

“She’s still alive,” an old man stated before breaking into a coughing fit.

“No one could survive that,” the woman beside him insisted. “They say most of the islands are under water now. That girl’s as dead as every other poor soul in Japan.”

The third person nodded emphatically.

The man hacked again. “Martha Jones made it off the Valliant. And she made it—” More coughing. “She made it out of the islands. That girl carries hope, and hope won’t die.”

The woman tsked. “You’re a fool, Parson. Ain’t no one can bring The Master down. No matter how much luck they seem to have on their side.”

Maria left them to their discussion. So, Martha Jones still walked the Earth. There hadn’t been news for weeks. Food and the smallest glimmer of hope, it couldn’t fail to cheer Sarah Jane up a little.

She ran back to their hideout, eager to tell Sarah Jane.

The Toclafane surrounded her barely a hundred meters from safety. God, she’d been so stupid.

“Pretty young thing, why in such a hurry?”

“So young and strong. Why is she not working?”

“She could be on break. That is always possible.”

“Or she could be one of the naughty ones. The ones who run and hide and try to fight Mister-Master.”

“No, she is too young to fight.”

“They are never too young.” Knives came out, glinting in the light.

“We should ask her. Are you a bad girl, pretty young thing?”

Maria knew better than to answer. She was dead regardless. The Toclafane never took prisoners.

“No last words? We do love when you beg for your lives.”

She would not give them the satisfaction. Her screams would be enough. Everyone screamed in the end.

They closed in.

God, this was really it, wasn’t it? No last minute saves. She wanted to shut her eyes. But her dad had faced down the Toclafane with his eyes open. It was the least she could do.

And because she didn’t close her eyes, she caught sight of Sarah Jane just beyond the swarming Toclafane. Sarah Jane didn’t need to see this. Or be seen. Sarah Jane needed to stay hidden and—Maria saw the gun just as Sarah Jane raised it and fired.

***

Nothing.

Black.

Silent.

Nothing.

She hadn’t heard the gun go off. Never felt the knives cutting into her. But Maria knew with absolute certainty that she was dead. Dead and…nowhere. A nowhere with no light or sound or sensation. She knew, and that was about it.

She knew she was dead. She knew this was death. And she knew she wasn’t alone.

***

Sunlight. Soft bed and cozy sleep-warm covers. Her bedroom.

Maria started to cry.

***

Every night she was dead. Every morning she woke up. And every day she lived the life she wasn’t supposed to have.

Maria still turned in her homework and looked out for her friends and encountered aliens. But everything had changed. Nothing would ever be the same.


End file.
